Tokens are a means of ownership of the asset that you've been seeding / funding through an ICO that's listed. Think of it like a fundraiser that provides people tokens or gifts, such that once their service is up you can use those tokens to basically make use of the service. Once the service has some sort of value, this value is displayed on an exchange (A token exchange which is different from a cryptocurrency exchange), like for example an ERC-20 Ethereum token for ICO's that are based on the Ethereum blockchain).

Now, there are a couple of things here that determine the worth of the token and how they can be used:

There are a lot of medical based blockchain ICO's or blockchains built on top of the Ethereum network that provide some form of tokens which you can use to pay your doctors for their services or pharmacutical companies for the medicines that you buy. This is a very innovative use of tokens for patients. These tokens may be tradable for cash on an exchange that enlists it and vice versa.

Most institutional investers are seeking to make marginal gains from any derivative that has had a history of previously attaining high prices multiple times, with the hopes that such assets once again reaches their ATH in order to reap the benefits. Recently if you may have noticed the stock prices in NYSE fell by a marginal percentage which later displayed a high percentage investment into Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies which was signified by a price rise in the altcoins segment. This is usually a rosy picture which indicates that such investors are hegding their funds into cryptocurrencies in the event of a stock turnoil.

The concept of encrypting the seed on one PVC transparent sheet and the encoded noise on another, such that when they both are overlayed the secret can be revealed. I had two questions pertaining to how this would be useful in a real time scenario:

1) As compared to regularly storing our seed on a paper / printing it on a thing sheet of stainless steel vs that on the revealer, I'm noticing that in both scenario's we can still maintain a form of two-factor backup. For example on a paper wallet or writing our seed on a paper we can store few words on one sheet of paper and other set of words on another. Place both of these papers in different secret lockers of yours and it'll still be useless for a theif to steal just one paper. I feel that the price of the revealer (i.e about 20 Euros) is a bit costly as compared to simply writing our seed and splitting it on two pieces of papers or even more. Would users in this case have any other security enhancement use cases by using the revealer?

2) If I have multiple seeds / wallets then do I need to order multiples of these or can multiple of them be printed / stored on one PVC sheet?

I'm so glad that Kali Digital Eco-Systems has taken the first step towards statement issues by the RBI against cryptocurrency businesses. What's shameful of the RBI is that it's making it too obvious that they can't handle how cryptocurrencies will no longer be under their supervision and they'll have little or no control over the participants exchanging cryptocurrencies. There must be transparency and lawfulness with regards to how Central agencies can pass laws. There was never any transparency regarding the panelists involved in deciding their public statements and no public opinion was really taken with regards to accepting cryptocurrencies for businesses. I hope Kali wins this one out on the grounds of Article 19 and I'm hoping to see RBI lay appropriate regulatory procedures for cryptocurrency businesses and to revert back their strict policies for banks to provide their services to such businesses and their customers using credit cards to procure cryptocurrencies.

I think looking at the crypto markets in general, there's a birds-eye view of how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are performing. Considering the last weeks bump in price and the price jump since 2-3 days ago, we're noticing a trend that looks to be bringing in the "Bull run" causing altcoins to rise by a large percentage, where as Bitcoin is still slowly making it way out of the Bear markets. The surprising factor here isn't about the previous weeks rise, but is as to even with a large trading volume we're noticing a small percentage increase in Bitcoin's price as compared to the altcoins. This isn't necessarily a worrying factor as it's just start of Q2 of 2018. We should mostly be seeing a back to back weekly increase in the price of Bitcoin over the next couple of months.

It's essential to get rid of Physical barriers to exchange, but it becomes possible only if regulatory bodies agree or accept for such a free market to co-exist with the existing banking systems. The true test of strength for Bitcoin would be its cross border transferability without having to worry about the TSA at the airport checking your luggage and laptops for any hidden paper money that you're carrying over a limit that has been specified or allowed. Also most of those companies are setting up blockchains to privately benefit themselves and only their customers, not necesarily a large proportion of the population. Like for example, Starbucks has its own cryptocurrency and this is okay for coffee buyers, and it kind of acts as a replacement for tokens or coupons that people buy to purchase coffee, but I'm not sure if people would exchange this token as much like Bitcoins would be exchange between people. These token based blockchain currencies are just similar to exchanging Amazon gift cards which is done is small amounts.

Mostly the need is felt for regulation of cryptocurrencies so that it can be continued to be freely used without having to worry about legal issues or jail terms. There needs to be a free market for crypto enthusiasts as this would help people maintain their personal privacy for the transactions that they make, as compared to making payments using their credit cards or the traditional banking system. Lets hope that regulation happens in a way that doesn't put barriers or extreme limits on crypto trades, and allows for a free market to prevail and traditional banks to realize its potential and to value peoples privacy.

From looking at it in the first glance it looks like we've rebounded and have touched the tip of the prediction curve. Based on the model it looks like Bitcoin needs to grow at a rate of 0.484 % per day which may not be possible considering the current stangating price, but it could be possible that a future sharp rise in price could coverup the current small percentage growth or the dips. The only concern is that the curve being parabolic seems to get too steep at around year 2020 and I guess it looks like a huge difference to attach and to stay on track from there on. This makes me doubt how reliable or proven is this mathematical model. To be honest safer bets would be $50,000 or lower if at all a large estimate is to be made.

Also BTC accelerating much faster than his model, made him to bump up his next prediction, which is also kind of odd considering that it has fallen since then.

Dr. Joerg Andres claims seem reasonable for when the crypto's have been procured through channels like coinbase which maintains a database of the buyers and sellers and would be ready to hand them over to the IRS, but this may not be true in the case of trades that happen between people through localbitcoins or through decentralized patforms. Such users can affectly (if they've taken the right precautions to hide their ID and information details) be safe and may no longer have to pay taxes on any of their crypto holdings or gains from sales. Also, I understand that it's good to lawfully abide and pay your taxes, but it also reduces our earnings by a large percentage leaving less behind for ourselves and all this for a cryptocurrency developed for the purpose of staying out of trouble from tax authorities if procured without leaking any ID or personal informations.

Taobao's probably just following suit after worries over political backlash because of the unclear nature of Bitcoin and ICO's industry / market in China. I believe sellers of Blockchain, smart contract and white paper writing services will usually move to other freelancing platforms that have no restrictions. There are decentralized platforms available which need to pick up user base like OpenBazzar which could host as a great platform for these Chinese sellers / buyers. My only concern is the gradual negativity of cryptocurrencies has lead to them exclusing Blockchain as well? Blockchain based services can fund startups that rely on the technology to improve their businesses and operations. If there's a need for a private blockchain service and that was earlier being sold on Taobao, that'd be unfortunate.

It sounds harder to digest when you term it as a recession, but there's no certainty as to whether it's going to be a long-term correction or a short one out. It's certainly been 4 months since the sharp drop in vlaue, but we're recently noticing that the markets are picking up and there's an influx of investment. Mostly certainly we're also noticing a positive investment attitude from Goerge Soros and serval traders. Now, the important thing to note is, Bitcoin will not just survive just because it's popular, but also because it's doing a lot in the research avenue. We're seeing lightning network development move up the ladder and there's now more open arena for instant exchanges. If you had noticed the price of Ripple a month ago, it dropped from $3.55 to what it is today. Most of the crypto market was covered in blood, and Ripple certainly isn't doing any better either.

Your investments in your wallet may not necessarily be a dead investment if you've planned your portfolio and invested in Altcoins that have a history to perform better over time. If you're willing to risk a small percentage of your funds, small cap altcoins usually tend to provide higher returns if it has a good technology behind it and has the necessary support and roadmap to back it up. Look for altcoins that seek to provide services to businesses- Probably health care blockchain based services, supply chain or hospitality based services. Also, don't hesitate to invest in mineable altcoins in the top 10 list which have stood the test of time.

Also, if you're feeling that your investments are being saturated by just hodling through, then try to trade a small portion of it on stabler large caps and go with your conscience, market news and regulatory news when it comes to investment.

That's interesting, since you've mentioned about the S9. I went ahead and found HagssFIN's post on the guide / teardown but the PCB there wasn't visible since I guess the user wanted to retain the warranty seals. I went ahead and look it up on youtube and was amazed to see that it looks exactly similar to the Halong Mining DragonMint T1, including the outer casing.

Note: I tried googling the Canaan Avalong repair guide since the hyperlink you've provided is incomplete. I came up with https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3191702.0 and the technical setup page over here - https://canaan.io/faqs/avalonminer-721/page/2/ (for the Avalon 741 and 721). What's interesting was as compared to the Halong Mining dragonmint T1, the Avalon 841 has one continuous heatsink without many tiny ones attached to the PCB. Also, the 16nm ASIC chips right beneath them https://imgur.com/cYXplGP are clearly visible. Looks like an interesting design difference between the two.

What is the international availability status for the physical cards? Are these going to be shipped by you and what are the rates? Also inorder to purchase Ethereum or the ERC-20 tokens are you going to allow users purchase them using their credit cards, that is, in order to load these metal physical cards with those tokens or ETH?

Practically I also think there's going to be some form of delay or time factor involved in receiving these cards if it's to be used "around the world". There's shipping time and probably legal concerns in countries that have made cryptocurrencies illegal. Do you have any sort of business plan to service users living in those countries?

Japan has truely taken the first step in boosting its GDP and also boosting Bitcoin adoption. They've realized the potential of the technology utilized in Bitcoin and I'm glad it's been acknowledged by their Governments. I believe the few countries that have it as unregulated could be Turkey, Vietnam and probably most of the European counterparts. I am really hoping that those countries that have listed Bitcoin as illegal (Bangladesh) and possibly looking forward to limiting its use heavily (India) also try and understand the benefits it'd provide for cross-border trades and also to understand ways on legally regulating it instead of looking forward to making it illegal.

I've never seen a teardown of a Bitcoin miner before and was amazed to notice the sheer amounts of Heatsinks on the PCB. It would've been nice if all the cables came braided or with some outer protection for the PSU wires. The 14AWG power cable looks pretty good. I'm pleased to notice the front end as well which looks fairly simple to configure and setup the connection to the pools. How many years of warranty does Halong provide for these units? Also is there a possibility to have a look at the ASIC chips and to verify if it was producted by Samsung?

That's a good piece of advise for investors seeking to rely on cryptocurrencies volatities because of the possible high expected returns. Hodling sounds appropriate at first, but spending your savings is also a better bet. There has to be movement of cryptocurrencies to add weight and value to the "currency" part of it. Now, back to what Thomas Lee mentions, it's good to hear from a seasoned strategist and investor that Bitcoins are an important asset among his portfolio and it is clearly also importany like he has mentioned to follow the "10 best days" approach, if you've missed it the previous year and the years before it. The slump is clearly temporarily and several market tensions, for example regulatory risks and the on-going bear market is adding to it. We should also remember that most of these top investors would advertise to people to invest in cryptocurrencies of their preference, in order to make gains and reduce their own losses.

Most ERP systems today make use of an RDBMS database (few of them don't) and these systems are capable of handling transactional information (For example inventory maintenance transactions, Material requisitions and processing, Financial - AP / A/R, journals and Sales orders as well as purchase orders). I'm also aware of many businesses who prefer to utilize information from the ERP system to process them through BI tools like Business Objects, QlikView and probably many others. These systems require a database that can store transactional information created on the go and on a real time basis. This becomes importantly mainly because most of the sales orders house sales margin information and inventory tracking (maintaining minimum / reserve stocks) and these have to be updated in many businesses on a real-time basis. Blockchain technology certainly hasn't reached this level of information processing capabilities on a real-time basis. Even with a private blockchain technology like Hyperledger there's' usually information that needs to go into a block which has to be validated and added into the block after one has been made (there's no mining in such case).

Blockchain technology would be useful alongside ERP systems to add "Trust" and to validate inventory movements and adjustments, stock status and very useful for inventory counting. This proves helpful for supply chain management as well to ensure that goods have been delivered by suppliers in right quantties and at the right time without having to worry about middle-men to verify this information and who could possibly maniupalte it.

I usually prefer to be law abiding and yes I'm quite aware of the several purposes for Bitcoin existing today. I understand your argument about taxation on your Bitcoin holdings and earnings, but that's an age old debate and most people are hesitant to get involved into the matter. Usually people pay taxes, even if they don't want to so that they're not haunted by the Governments actions against them. There're are laws in most countries that impose 200% - 300% of the unpaid tax amount as a penalty and probably jail term. Where I live, Bitcoin gains on trading are considered taxable as capital gains (30%) if it exceeds some value or if it doesn't then it's taxable under the normal income tax bracket (could vary from 10-20%). We're forced to sadly pay taxes to stay out of this mess, and there's no transparency on where the money goes or gets utilized.

Also, Bitcoin can succeed if it helps with international remittances, and if it's for a fee cheaper than that of money remittances services like Western Union or Money Gram. Also Bitcoin allows people to carry amounts larger without having to worry about border control (at airports for example that set limits of how much cash you can carry). This is similar to carrying a credit or a debit card.

I would usually prefer an economy like Japan where Bitcoins are are legally accepted for payments, and there's some form of promotion by the Governments who formally approve of its usage.

The legality of businesses accepting Bitcoins from international customers may depends from one country to another. The first approach would be to research online on the legality of accepting and transacting in Bitcoins and possibly utilizing a payment processing service like Bitpay for example to receive Bitcoins from customers and have it instantly converted and transfered into the companies bank account (Current account). There's a good case study here - https://blog.bitpay.com/b2b-bitcoin-payments/ on how a US cosmetics company could've used Bitcoins for receiving payments from Chinese customers which was a complex process of converting Yuan to Dollars in China and then send wire transfers from China to the US bank account. Also in general most businesses who accept credit card payments from international customers may require PCI checks for meeting security standards, these can also be overcome by using Bitcoins.

You could record Bitcoins as receipts under Accounts receivables or as a regular sales transactions with Bitcoin receipts instead of cash. There's a nice guide here on how to record receipts and payments (and deriving cost of goods sold) using quickbooks for Bitcoin transactions performed via payment processors like Bitpay - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/using-bitcoin-with-quickbooks-part-1-recording-sales-and-accepting-payments-1385976677/

Your point seems apt and I used to believe similarly about being able to send those cryptocurrencies outside the country. I had a good thought about being able to do this, but then had realized that it had several restrictions, limitations and barries of its own. People who can afford to travel abroad would be able to encash their Bitcoins offshore and bring a bit back to their homecountry, but this constitutes a small percentage of the people. Apart from that, being able to send the Bitcoins offshore to procure goods will levy several customs duties (Atleast where I live the percentage of duty for many electronic goods and medium-high value goods are usually taxable sometimes upto 40% and for some items even more) as compared to the items procured within the country if Bitcoins were a legal tender.

What mainly concerns me here is Bitcoin being a legal tender certainly eases a lot of things and boosts adoption. There are some scenarios where a country's currency value is so poor that people resort to using Bitcoins in the grey / black market (for example in the case of Venezuela) and I fear of this scenario only if holding cryptocurrencies become illegal (Although it'd be a nightmare for the authorities to track if kept well hidden until time to exchange).

The mainy issue is making cryptocurrencies an illegal tender limits the ways in which we can use it within the country and finding avenues abroad isn't as easy and may eventually be a playground for investors to just trade them in an exchange for the value that it has because of the offshore benefits cryptocurrencies provide to people living in other countries.